The government of Maldives signed an agreement with MBS Global Investments, a Dubai-based family office, to develop a $9 billion crypto and blockchain hub in Malé, the capital of the South Pacific archipelago nation.

According to a report from the Financial Times, the agreement, which was signed on May 4, was done in the hopes of moving the Maldives away from reliance on tourism and fisheries by attracting foreign direct investment into blockchain and Web3 technologies.

The project outlines plans for the Maldives International Financial Centre, an 830,000-square-meter facility that will reportedly employ up to 16,000 individuals.

Completing the project will take an estimated five years and the capital requirements for the ambitious development are more than the $7 billion in annual gross domestic product (GDP) of the Maldives.

The geographic location of Maldives. Source: Worldometer

The planned crypto hub reflects the growing importance of the crypto industry worldwide. However, the Maldives’ ambitions to become a global center for financial technology must contend with well-capitalized, established jurisdictions like Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Related: Slovenia’s capital of Ljubljana ranked as world’s most crypto-friendly city

Established crypto and fintech hubs already on the scene

Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is a rapidly growing crypto and Web3 hub thanks to its positive regulatory environment that encourages innovation and a local government willing to explore blockchain technology in real-world applications.

On April 6, Dubai’s Land Department (DLD) and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) signed an agreement to connect the land registry to blockchain, allowing for more comprehensive real estate tokenization.

Hong Kong has also positioned itself as a crypto hub through proactive regulations that have attracted hundreds of Web3 and fintech firms.

According to Ivan Ivanov, global CEO of WOW Summit, a blockchain conference in Hong Kong, the special economic zone leverages its position as a bridge between Western economies and China to attract investment and serves as a regulatory sandbox.

Singapore is also a major international crypto center, with dozens of digital asset exchanges based inside the country and hundreds of Web3 firms headquartered there.

The country continues to attract global investment through a regulatory approach that encourages technological experimentation without fear of regulatory reprisal.

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Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor hinted at an impending Bitcoin (BTC) purchase, marking the fourth consecutive week of purchases by the BTC treasury company.

The company’s most recent acquisition occurred on April 28 when Strategy purchased 15,355 BTC, valued at over $1.4 billion at the time, bringing the company’s total holdings to 553,555 BTC.

According to data from SaylorTracker, Strategy is up approximately 39% on its investment, representing over $15 billion in unrealized gains.

Strategy’s history of Bitcoin acquisition. Source: SaylorTracker

Bitcoin investors continue closely monitoring the company, which has been a major driver of direct institutional exposure to BTC by popularizing the Bitcoin corporate treasury concept and indirectly through institutions holding Strategy’s stock in their investment portfolios.

Related: Strategy ends April up 32% in best month since November as Q1 earnings loom

Strategy misses Q1 analyst estimates but continues stacking Bitcoin

Strategy fell short of analyst estimates for Q1 2025, reporting approximately $111 million in revenue, down by 3.6% from Q1 2024 and missing analyst expectations by 5%.

However, the company also reported that it acquired 61,497 BTC so far in 2025 and also revealed plans to raise $21 billion through an equity offering to finance the purchase of more BTC.

The quarter-by-quarter growth of Strategy’s Bitcoin treasury. Source: Strategy

Asset manager Richard Byworth recently suggested that Strategy should acquire companies with ample cash reserves and convert those fiat cash reserves to Bitcoin for its treasury.

Byworth added that Strategy could also purchase Bitcoin on the open market as exchange balances dwindle, rather than the over-the-counter (OTC) transactions between private parties that do not affect the market exchange price.

Doing so would push prices higher, driving up the value of Strategy’s Bitcoin reserves and acting as a catalyst attracting even more investors to BTC, the asset manager said.

Strategy’s effect on Bitcoin’s price and Bitcoin adoption continues to draw intense discussion over the role of the company as it relates to market dynamics.

Adam Livingston, a BTC analyst and author of “The Bitcoin Age and The Great Harvest,” recently argued that Strategy’s demand for BTC is synthetically halving Bitcoin by outpacing the daily miner output.

Livingston pointed out that Strategy’s average daily rate of Bitcoin accumulation of roughly 2,087 BTC far outstrips the collective daily mined supply of around 450 BTC.

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Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is evolving from an abstract concept to a practical financial tool as institutional players increasingly test and deploy blockchain-based infrastructure at scale.

This past week alone saw a flurry of announcements from both traditional financial institutions and blockchain-native firms advancing their RWA initiatives.

On April 30, BlackRock filed to create a digital ledger technology shares class for its $150 billion Treasury Trust fund. It will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.

The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY).

On the same day, Libre announced plans to tokenize $500 million in Telegram debt through its new Telegram Bond Fund (TBF). The fund will be available to accredited investors and usable as collateral for onchain borrowing.

The week’s biggest headline came from Dubai, where MultiBank Group signed a $3 billion RWA tokenization deal with United Arab Emirates-based real estate firm MAG and blockchain infrastructure provider Mavryk. The deal is touted as the largest RWA tokenization initiative to date.

Source: MultiBank

“The recent surge isn’t arbitrary. It’s happening because everything’s lining up,” Eric Piscini, CEO of Hashgraph, told Cointelegraph:

“Rules are getting clearer in major markets. The tech is stronger, faster, and ready to scale. And big players are actually doing it — BlackRock is tokenizing funds, Citi is exploring digital asset custody, and Franklin Templeton has tokenized money market funds on public blockchains.”

Related: Real-world asset tokenization: Unlocking a new era of finance

Tokenization has moved beyond theory

Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, said the recent announcements “demonstrate that tokenization has moved beyond theoretical discussions into practical application by market leaders.”

He added that the growing adoption by big institutions gives the space more credibility, making others feel more confident to join in and help boost new ideas and investments.

Kazmierczak stated that the renewed interest in RWA tokenization is primarily driven by US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto administration and growing regulatory clarity.

Trump, who has pledged to “make the US the crypto capital of the world,” has taken a different approach to crypto compared to the Biden administration. That era saw an aggressive crackdown from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), prompting many firms to withdraw from US operations.

However, the narrative appears to be shifting. Since Trump’s election victory, the SEC has dropped or paused over a dozen enforcement cases against crypto companies.

Additionally, the DOJ recently announced the dissolution of its cryptocurrency enforcement unit, signaling a softer approach to the sector.

Source: ALX

Aside from regulatory clarity, advancements in technological capabilities, especially in wallets, have also played a key role in driving tokenization adoption, Felipe D’Onofrio, chief technology officer at Brickken, said.

“In parallel, macroeconomic pressures are pushing institutions to search for efficiency and liquidity in traditionally illiquid markets,” he added.

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Ethereum remains main hub for tokenization

Ethereum continues to serve as the primary hub for RWA tokenization, thanks to its mature ecosystem, broad developer support and robust infrastructure.

“Ethereum remains by far the most suitable blockchain for large-scale RWA issuance due to its unparalleled security, developer ecosystem, and institutional adoption,” Kazmierczak said.

However, he noted that dedicated RWA-specialized ecosystems like Canton Network, Plume, and Ondo Chain are building compelling alternatives with features designed explicitly for compliant asset tokenization.

According to data from RWA.xyz, the market value of tokenized US Treasurys currently stands at $6.5 billion. Ethereum accounts for the lion’s share of the market, hosting over $4.9 billion in tokenized Treasurys.

Source: RWA.xyz

Herwig Koningson, CEO of Security Token Market, said companies like BlackRock have shown that it’s possible to build large-scale tokenized products, worth billions of dollars, using more than one blockchain at the same time.

He said this shows that the success of tokenizing assets doesn’t depend so much on which blockchain is used, but rather on what the company needs the system to do.

“This is why you will see many banks and traditional firms use permissioned blockchains or even private DLT systems,” Koningson said.

Related: $21B tokenized RWA market doubtful, institutions uninterested — Plume CEO

Challenges remain, but growth potential is huge

Yet hurdles remain. Regulation continues to be a significant barrier, especially for risk-averse institutions requiring guarantees around compliance and privacy.

Technical limitations also persist, chiefly the lack of interoperability between blockchain platforms, according to Piscini. However, he said hybrid models are gaining traction by offering the privacy of permissioned systems with optional future interoperability with public chains.

Looking ahead, Piscini estimated that more than 10% of global financial assets could be tokenized by the end of the decade. D’Onofrio also made a modest projection, estimating that between 5% and 10% of global financial assets could be tokenized by 2030.

On the other hand, RedStone’s Kazmierczak predicted that approximately 30% of the global financial system will be tokenized by the end of this decade.

In terms of numbers, STM.co predicted that the world’s RWA market will be anywhere between $30 and $50 trillion by the end of 2030.

Most firms predict that the RWA sector will reach a market size of between $4 trillion and $30 trillion by 2030.

If the sector were to achieve the median prediction of about $10 trillion, it would represent more than 50 times the growth from its current value of around $185 billion, including the stablecoin market, according to a Tren Finance research report.

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